That confidence quickly vanished when we stood atop the bunny hill for the first time. "Why do they have to make it so steep?" we asked. "Are you sure this is the practice hill?"
After a few tentative, awkward descents down the bunny hill, we felt ready for the big slopes. Or rather, the smallest easy slope that started about halfway up the mountain. We hopped on the ski lift with little trouble when Nancy suddenly started yelling "The bar! The bar!" Not knowing what she was referring to, I requested more information. "Huh?"
"Lower the bar!!!"
Oh yeah. I forgot to lower the bar that keeps you from falling out of the ski lift. Once the bar was lowered, we were able to relax a bit -- or as much as you can when you are swinging 50 feet above the ground on a sparse metal bench with a stiff, frigid wind blowing in your face. After about 10 minutes, we reached the dropoff point which can be a bit stressful. My goal is to not be the guy that causes them to stop the lift to clear me out of the way. Luckily we did ok on the dismount but were dismayed at what we saw. The only way down was steep, much steeper than the bunny hill. We cursed at whomever labeled this an "easy" slope until we saw the "difficult" slope, which went straight down. That's when we realized that the definition of an "easy" slope is much different in Vermont than it is in Virginia.
We stood there for several minutes watching everyone zip down the hill effortlessly and with great glee. Many of the skiers looked to be 6-10 years old. Finally, we started moving and, after intense snowplowing and white-knuckled fright, we made it down that hill and to the next one. We stopped, stared, and watched everyone zip past again. Finally we snowplowed down that hill to the next one. We repeated this over and over, our emotions alternating between fright and relief. We made it to the bottom of the mountain in about an hour and took a short break in our room to gather our wits.
We headed back out and decided to tackle a bigger slope that started near the top of the 3,000 foot peak. This time, when we dismounted from the ski lift, I lost my balance and nearly knocked everyone over (it was a quad-lift). Luckily I regained my balance and ignored the annoyed looks.
We tried to find the "easy" slope but only saw signs for the difficult (black diamond) slopes. "Oops," I said as Nancy gave me an annoyed loook.
Finally we found the easy slope which began with a massively steep drop that looked like you'd need a repelling rope and/or parachute to go down. Luckily, there was another "easy" slope nearby that started off more reasonably. We continued our pattern of stopping at the top of the hills, gathering our wits, watching everyone zip by, and then slowly and tensely snowplowing down the hill. It was an exercise in determination.
Finally, this trail leveled off to a reasonable grade and zig-zagged down the mountain. Unfortunately, the conditions were very icy which made it very hard/impossible to control your speed in some spots. But we managed to make it down far enough to eat lunch at one of the eateries located halfway up the mountain on the slope. After lunch we watched some of the little kids zipping down "Hot Dog Hill" which had jumps, rails, and moguls. The little kids were totally fearless. I backed away a bit for fear that I would accidentally go down the hill.
After we reached the bottom of the mountain, we decided to try the slope we went down first, thinking it would be easier this time. It wasn't. In fact, it was icier than it was in the morning. We reached the bottom and called it a day. We had only been down 3 slopes but it had taken most of the day. I'd like to think that this is because the mountain was so big. In any event, it was fun and we enjoyed doing something we don't get to do very often.
We dropped off our skis and picked up Katie at daycare. She had been very good, we were told, except she colored on her doll's head. She had spaghetti and meatballs for lunch and graham crackers and pineapple for a snack.
We had dinner at a Sam's Steakhouse in town and then warmed up beside the fireplace in our living room. It was a fun day but made me question why anyone would pay to jump off a mountain like that.
Here are some photos of us on the mountain. At this point we're halfway down the mountain.
That's me on the right in the blue jacket.
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